Day: June 16, 2008

Women Switch To Obama

I realize that this may not be the best post for some to read, but it happens.

Marilyn Authenreith, a mother of two in North Carolina, felt strongly about supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.

But once the former first lady quit the race, Authenreith switched allegiance to Barack Obama, mainly because she thinks that he — unlike Republican John McCain — will push for universal healthcare.

Now that the Democratic marathon is over, Clinton supporters like Authenreith are siding heavily with Obama over McCain, polls show. And Obama has taken a wide lead among female voters, belying months of political chatter and polls of primary voters suggesting that disappointment over Clinton’s defeat might block the Illinois senator from enjoying his party’s historic edge among women.

The rancor peaked two weeks ago with televised images of furious Clinton loyalists protesting a Democratic Party meeting in Washington to settle a dispute over Florida and Michigan delegates.

“There are women still struggling with a real sense of grief that Hillary is not the nominee,” said Maren Hesla, who runs campaign programs for EMILY’s List, a group that promotes female candidates who support abortion rights. But that sense “will grow smaller with every day that passes from the nomination battles.”
Aides suggested that McCain’s support for a gas tax holiday, a hawkish foreign policy and steps against climate change would appeal to many women.

But in a year that strongly favors Democrats, McCain faces an uphill battle to cut into Obama’s advantage among women, who made up more than half of the voters in recent presidential elections.

“Women are voting for Obama because they dislike [President] Bush, they dislike McCain, they dislike the war, and they’re upset about the economy, and those facts override any concerns about the Clinton-Obama primaries,” Democratic pollster Mark Mellman said.
In the days since Clinton abandoned the race and endorsed him, the political arm of Planned Parenthood and other women’s groups have rallied behind Obama and joined forces to attack McCain. Among other things, they have highlighted McCain’s opposition to abortion rights. The Republican’s moderate image, they say, has misled many women into thinking he supports abortion rights.
“Women see themselves as more economically vulnerable than men, more likely recipients of the social safety net at some point in their lives, and they see a larger role for government,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found a wide gap last week: Women favored Obama over McCain, 52% to 33%. The survey also found that voters who cast ballots for Clinton in the Democratic primaries preferred Obama over McCain, 61% to 19%.

I had asked several times, why women would vote for McCain after Clinton suspended her campaign.  Most of the trash I received had not to do with why they would switch just that most were pissed at the Clinton loss.  At least now I have a better grasp at what is going on with women voters.  But if one does not agree–I am listening.

Professor’s Classroom

Damn Monday already? Where did the joy and pleasure of the weekend go? Let us not speak of that again, but instead, move on to the quiz of the week.

In 1912, the Congress was afraid that the workers in the Federal government would try to join a union for better hours, pay, benefits and such and they were afraid that if the employed the strike then the government would have to shut down. The Congress enacted this legislation to prevent this from happening.

This should keep the class busy for awhile and I can get some sleep. You may begin!

Voters Get Info From Net

This could answer many questions.  But if the voter is not looking to understand but rather to reinforce some bias then this is a terrible turn of events.

A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows Internet technologies that are hot in the world of consumer goods sales are also working for those seeking the Oval Office.

The Pew report found nearly half of all Americans used the Internet, e-mail or mobile text messaging in ways relating to the primary campaigns this spring. Pew also found the percentage of adult Americans who went online daily to get political news or information more than doubled since the last presidential election, increasing to 17 percent from 2004’s level of 8 percent.

The message for Internet-naive candidates: Get onboard and sell yourself via the Web.

Another big online activity among those interested in the campaigns and those doing the campaigning was social networking. Pew figures 10 percent of Americans used sites such as Facebook or MySpace “to gather information or become involved” in the primaries.

Another Pew finding: People have become more comfortable doing money transactions online and that equated, in the primaries, to donating funds to their candidates of choice. Six percent donated online this spring, 4 percent more than in 2004, Pew determined.

Online advertising expert Michael Bassik, VP of interactive marketing at MSHC Partners, said that while the Pew report confirms the 2008 primaries saw extraordinary use of the Internet by interested people, the candidates might have missed the boat when it comes to advertising.

“When you look at the fact that nearly half of all adults got information about the primary through new media and compare that with fact that the candidates collectively spent less than 2 percent of their ad budgets to advertise on the Internet, clearly there is a tremendous disconnect between the amount of information people want to receive from the Internet and the amount of information candidates deliver to these audiences,” said Bassik.

This is good and this is bad–if the voters is truly searching for answer then this is an excellent turn, but if they are just looking to find worthless info that will increase their hatred or their bias–then this is not so damn good.  A personal note is that I have done a bit of impromptu polling and I would say that most voters are “low information voters”, which is a polite way of saying something derogatory, but beyond that, I have found that most that I have talked with have been looking for anything that will reinforce their bias.

Change Is Coming

This is an email that I got from a very good friend and reader.

CHANGE IS COMING!

The buzzword of this election is ‘CHANGE.’ Candidates toss it around without saying what they want to change to. Just that we need…..CHANGE!

This brings to mind the following illustration.

Years ago, there was an old tale in the Marine Corps about a major who inspected his Marines and told the Gunny Sergeant that they smelled bad.  The major suggested that they change their underwear.

The Gunny responded, ‘Aye, aye, sir. I’ll see to it immediately.’

He went into the tent and said, ‘The major thinks you guys smell bad, and he wants you to change your underwear. Smith, you change with Jones, McCarthy, you change with Witkowskie, Brown, you change with Schultz….everyone change, now get on with it’

And the moral of this story is:
A candidate may promise change in Washington…but the stink remains!

Afghan President Warns Of Pakistan Attack

Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened Sunday for the first time to send troops into Pakistan to kill Taliban fighters if they pursued cross-border attacks.

Karzai said at a news conference that Afghanistan has the right to self-defense, and because guerrillas from Pakistan “come and kill Afghan and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to do the same.”

Analysts said they doubt military action by Afghanistan is imminent, but Pakistan’s prime minister said the threat “will not be taken well.”

Pakistan has warned it will not tolerate any violations of its borders.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan did not interfere with other countries and would not allow any interference in its affairs.

His warning came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened to send troops over the border into Pakistan to confront militants based there.

He said his nation had the right to retaliate in “self-defence” when militants crossed over from Pakistan.

Now the US has a double problem to be concerned with–if the attack comes will Pakistan remain in the US fold?

Bush Impeachment And Do Nothing Democrats

Last week, Congressman Dennis Kucinich stood for nearly five hours in the House chamber, reading aloud the case for impeaching President George W. Bush.

The irony is that Kucinich’s fellow Democrats, in their own act of dereliction of duty, chose to bury these 35 articles of impeachment.

It would be one thing if these Democrats thought the charges against Bush weren’t justified. Most of them believe that the president did indeed break the law, violated the Constitution and probably deserves to be impeached.

But they will not debate the issue because it doesn’t help their cause politically. They like the fact that Bush is president, that his blunders have killed his credibility and that of his party. He has become the best advertisement Democrats have for why the GOP should be kicked out of Washington this November.

But how do Democrats make the case that they stand for change and accountability when they fail so spectacularly to even discuss holding Bush accountable for anything?
Democrats have a great knack for engaging in political calculations that result in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. For too long they have tried to finagle, position and con their way to victory, trying to tell voters what they want to hear, even if it goes against their core principles. Voters as a group might be dumb enough to fall for Bush’s “compassionate conservative” line, but they easily can smell the fakery that has been the Democratic brand for too long.
The argument being made against seeking impeachment is that we have other pressing issues to take care of. Yes, we do. But what lasting effect will there be by setting a precedent of not acting on alleged lawbreaking by the president? Congress can’t spare a few hours to uphold the Constitution? I bet if we take a close look at their schedules, there’s plenty of time to spare on a hearing or two.

Will McCain Really Be The Republican Nominee?

There are those who feel that he will not be the nominee.  But how can he not be the nominee?

When the Republicans choose their candidate on September 4th, there is a very real chance that they could throw the election into an unexpected chaos as they pull a genuine September Surprise.

The reasons are simple. He can’t win. Now that Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee — the polls all show that McCain’s pro-war stance and Bush endorsement make him a lost cause in November. That combined with soft stand on litmus test conservative issues make him an unpopular candidate among the base. I know some Democrats that think the Republicans are planning to let McCain lose and ‘sit this one out’ so that they can hang the democrats with a bad economy and a war that is a morass. But that just isn’t how they play. They play to win every hand — think about 2000 with a popular Democratic president and good economy and a solid VP running for president. Why did they put up Bush? And why did they fight so hard? Because, you don’t ever throw a game. And they’re not going to throw this one.